What to do if some schools want parental info on fafsa and some don't

p9142 said:

OK, here is a question I hope someone on this site knows the answer to. A few schools I am applying to want me to include my parents financial info on the fafsa, however some of them don't. Can I submit two fafsa forms? I would like to submit one fafsa with the parental info to all the schools that require it, and another fafsa without the parental into to the other schools that don't.

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OMG, bump, I was wondering this myself!

Just submit it with your parent's info. From what I hear, you become eligible for more types of loans, grants, etc. if you include that information. You can't fill out two forms. Plus, i don't think it hurts you to put your parent's info unless of course, they make a VERY good living. When I say "very" good, it means that if they can pay for your whole medical education out of pocket then you may not become eligible for certain types of aid, but will still be eligible for unsubsidized loans and such.

p9142 said:

[RANT]Well this is really pissing me off. My parents can pay for it out of pocket. But they will not pay for any of it. Of course I am not the least bit angry with them, but this whole system is ridiculous. I will be 28 by the time I matriculate, and the fact that I have to put that info down is just crazy.

I know, I know, its just loans you will pay it back eventually blah blah blah. But why should I be punished because my parents are wealthy? Shouldn't there be some sort of age cutoff where you no longer have to report this crap. If you are 40, then your parents might be 70 and still expected to pay.[/RANT]

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Yeah but when your parents are that rich they just kinda assume you'll be helped out.

And anyways, if your parents are 70, you'll probably get an inheritance about the time you finally finish your residency, lol.

Just put it down if you can. It will not prevent you from getting subsidized stafford loans, as you are considered an independent student by virtue of being in a graduate program. What it will potentially keep you from getting is need based scholarships from the school. There are very few of these out there, and the school decides what criteria they want to base this on. Since it is their money, I will not begrudge them the desire to make sure this goes to students who need help and have no other way to get it. You may say that your well off parents are not going to pay for your education (and neither did mine), but do you really think they wouldn't give you a little help if it meant the difference between going or not going or if you run into some trouble along they way (maybe they wouldn't, but I doubt it)? The school have no way of knowing if they will or not so they prefer to give those scholarships to people who don't have that option. Don't worry though. There are always merit based scholarships you will still be in the running for, and if all else fails it's loan city like everybody else.

Cirrus83 said:

Yeah but when your parents are that rich they just kinda assume you'll be helped out.

And anyways, if your parents are 70, you'll probably get an inheritance about the time you finally finish your residency, lol.

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thats dark. have you seen 'death to smoochy'? reminds me of that for some reason. i liiiike.

p9142 said:

[RANT]Well this is really pissing me off. My parents can pay for it out of pocket. But they will not pay for any of it. Of course I am not the least bit angry with them, but this whole system is ridiculous. I will be 28 by the time I matriculate, and the fact that I have to put that info down is just crazy.

I know, I know, its just loans you will pay it back eventually blah blah blah. But why should I be punished because my parents are wealthy? Shouldn't there be some sort of age cutoff where you no longer have to report this crap. If you are 40, then your parents might be 70 and still expected to pay.[/RANT]

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I thought that if your oldest parent is over 60 then FAFSA won't calculate their information into your expected contribution (I guess since they will be retiring soon and need the money for themselves).

p9142 said:

Sorry my rant really conflated the issue and is not really about my initial question. I am worried that by including my parents information I am less like to get scholarships from the schools that do not require parental info than I would be if I didn't put the info on my fafsa. I don't want to blow my chances at the schools who don't require it just to satisfy the schools that do.

Also my parents are certainly not wealthy, but rather upper middle class. However, that doesn't mean their expected contribution isn't high. I used this http://www.finaid.org/calculators/quickefc.phtml and found that my efc is about $50,000.

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Yeah, my dad is 61, so my EFC is only $2267!!!

Because we will be entering grad school.. doesn't that mean we are independent? When I filled in the calculator thing (saying I have $0 income because I won't have any) and putting my actualy parents' income -- it says I qualify for some $0 estimated contribution... Oldest parent is 46 so I don't think that is it.

p9142 said:

Sorry my rant really conflated the issue and is not really about my initial question. I am worried that by including my parents information I am less like to get scholarships from the schools that do not require parental info than I would be if I didn't put the info on my fafsa. I don't want to blow my chances at the schools who don't require it just to satisfy the schools that do.

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There's no way a school would penalize you for that. I doubt that you'll find schools that will give you grants without parental info, unless you're married or perhaps if you're much older than the average med student.

lilTXcatMD said:

Because we will be entering grad school.. doesn't that mean we are independent? When I filled in the calculator thing (saying I have $0 income because I won't have any) and putting my actualy parents' income -- it says I qualify for some $0 estimated contribution... Oldest parent is 46 so I don't think that is it.

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That's correct, your income is $0 and you are independent so your EFC is zero.

Unfortunately your EFC has nothing to do with how much you'll actually end up having to borrow or pay.

jillibean said:

I thought that if your oldest parent is over 60 then FAFSA won't calculate their information into your expected contribution (I guess since they will be retiring soon and need the money for themselves).

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whoa is this true, this totally changes my whole life, where did you get this info????

ordeliacay said:

whoa is this true, this totally changes my whole life, where did you get this info????

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I found this:
http://www.fafsa.com/fmtables.htm

Its not totally true, but the older your parents are, more of their $ is protected.

I believe at the financial aid info at Georgetown, the guy in charge mentioned that including parental information on the FAFSA cannot hurt you, but only help you. Everyone entering medical school is considered independent, and for federal loans and grants, it doesn't matter how much your parents make.

Individual schools DO sometimes look at parental information for determining need based grants and scholarships. It really depends on the school and how they choose to use money they have allotted for scholarships and stuff... If you don't include the parental information, I don't believe you are eligible for some of these types of grants.

this is a great question and i don't think it has been answered yet.

*for their own institutional aid* (grants or school-provided loans) most schools seem to consider all students dependent and want parents' information in doling out their money. (1)

*some* schools consider students past a certain age independent for their own institutional aid. the magic number seems to be about 30. (2)

this begs the question: how does one fill out and/or submit parent information on federal financial aid forms in a way that satisfies (1) but results in the best possible aid for (2)? Is it possible to only give parent information to (1) and withhold it from (2)? Or if (2) gets the non-required parent information will they disregard it because the student is considered independent by the school?

Cirrus83 said:

Yeah but when your parents are that rich they just kinda assume you'll be helped out.

And anyways, if your parents are 70, you'll probably get an inheritance about the time you finally finish your residency, lol.

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That's not cool.

p9142 said:

OK, here is a question I hope someone on this site knows the answer to. A few schools I am applying to want me to include my parents financial info on the fafsa, however some of them don't. Can I submit two fafsa forms? I would like to submit one fafsa with the parental info to all the schools that require it, and another fafsa without the parental into to the other schools that don't.

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speaking as someone who already went through this last year, here's the deal. in order to be eligible for any government grants, you have to submit your parents info. Yes, even if you're over 25, you're married, whatever. If your parents are alive, you have to provide the info. If you read the instructions carefully, it says even if you are an independent adult, you must provide parents' info for health professional programs.

people will argue this back and forth for months now, and someone will "know a guy who's roommate didn't provide his parents' info" and he got lots of grant money, but they're lying.

so yeah, submit it. regardless of what the school wants, fafsa will require it for medical school. and, no, you cannot submit two applications to fafsa. that's in the directions as well.

jillibean said:

Yeah, my dad is 61, so my EFC is only $2267!!!

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keep in mind, they'll expect you to supplement most, if not all, of the remaining amount due with loans, not grants. there's virtually nothing available in the form of free grant money for medical students because it is assumed that we will have no trouble paying off our loans in a field where we are guaranteed lucrative employment (begin argument about how all doctors are poor here).

Contacting each school is your best bet. There is way too much disinformation in this thread, like:

jbrice1639 said:

If you read the instructions carefully, it says even if you are an independent adult, you must provide parents' info for health professional programs.

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No, actually if you read the instructions carefully it says (Health Profession Students: Your school may require you to complete Step Four even if you answered “Yes” to any Step Three question.)

Obviously some schools require it and some don't.

Doctor~Detroit said:

this is a great question and i don't think it has been answered yet.

*for their own institutional aid* (grants or school-provided loans) most schools seem to consider all students dependent and want parents' information in doling out their money. (1)

*some* schools consider students past a certain age independent for their own institutional aid. the magic number seems to be about 30. (2)

this begs the question: how does one fill out and/or submit parent information on federal financial aid forms in a way that satisfies (1) but results in the best possible aid for (2)? Is it possible to only give parent information to (1) and withhold it from (2)? Or if (2) gets the non-required parent information will they disregard it because the student is considered independent by the school?

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*bump*

i feel cheesy calling a school to ask how i can get around giving them parents' information in order to get more financial aid money.

my 0.02$

here's how it works (from my understanding, i've filed the FAFSA 4 times for undergrad):
fill out all the info, including your parents'. as a grad student, everyone's EFC will be 0 unless you have huge assets in your name, or business, or already make a lot of $$$. thus, you will be qualified for the subsidized 8500$ loan that everyone gets. then, each school calculates their own EFC using an "in-house" formula and using the CSS profile (and any other extra forms from specific schools). obviously, the private schools with a lot of $$ take EFC into serious consideration and if it's low enough you could either get GRANT money from the school (in addition to the federal loans) and/or get school subsidized loans that are of lower interest than just regular unsubsidized loans. so, your loans will not incur interest while in school and after that it's usually ~5% fixed interest (these are the school loans). on the other hand, if it's your state school that doesn't have any $$ to give out for free based on your family's EFC (parent info), then they'll just give you loans. so your parents' info won't hurt. finally, regarding scholarships, if schools have "NEED BASED" scholarships, then there's almost no way they'd give you such a scholarship if you don't include your parents' info. otherwise, everyone would have an EFC of 0 and we're all needy.

when you apply to a professional program you are an independant (regardless if they claim you as a dependant) so it doesnt really matter if you put your parents info in or not. This is what all the med school financial aid offices told me. hope this helps

farikanok said:

my 0.02$

here's how it works (from my understanding, i've filed the FAFSA 4 times for undergrad):
fill out all the info, including your parents'. as a grad student, everyone's EFC will be 0 unless you have huge assets in your name, or business, or already make a lot of $$$. thus, you will be qualified for the subsidized 8500$ loan that everyone gets. then, each school calculates their own EFC using an "in-house" formula and using the CSS profile (and any other extra forms from specific schools). obviously, the private schools with a lot of $$ take EFC into serious consideration and if it's low enough you could either get GRANT money from the school (in addition to the federal loans) and/or get school subsidized loans that are of lower interest than just regular unsubsidized loans. so, your loans will not incur interest while in school and after that it's usually ~5% fixed interest (these are the school loans). on the other hand, if it's your state school that doesn't have any $$ to give out for free based on your family's EFC (parent info), then they'll just give you loans. so your parents' info won't hurt. finally, regarding scholarships, if schools have "NEED BASED" scholarships, then there's almost no way they'd give you such a scholarship if you don't include your parents' info. otherwise, everyone would have an EFC of 0 and we're all needy.

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this makes sense, but i'm not sure about the part i put in bold. there *are* some schools that don't require parent's information if you're past a certain age (i.e., they consider you independent for financial aid).

so maybe even though every school wants to get a fafsa, maybe it's the css profile that some schools wouldn't require for independent students? this seems to be the case at stanford, one of those few schools that consider older students independent:

http://med.stanford.edu/md/financial_aid/application.html

Doctor~Detroit said:

this makes sense, but i'm not sure about the part i put in bold. there *are* some schools that don't require parent's information if you're past a certain age (i.e., they consider you independent for financial aid).

so maybe even though every school wants to get a fafsa, maybe it's the css profile that some schools wouldn't require for independent students? this seems to be the case at stanford, one of those few schools that consider older students independent:

http://med.stanford.edu/md/financial_aid/application.html

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good pt., i'm not sure about schools that have age limitations. i'm assuming that it wouldn't matter too much if it's a school that doesn't have any $$ (i.e. state schools) in which case almost everyone takes out large loans (unless you have a merit scholarship). i just know that the CSS profile along with the FAFSA (with parent info) is used to calculate a student's EFC; that's how my school calculates my current undergrad EFC. for many private med schools with $$, the formula is something like this:
total cost - 8500$ (fed loans) - subsidized low interest loans from school - EFC = need
if there's a number in this final "need" part, then they'll likely give you grant money.